Is smashing a trophy out of line?

June 7, 3:46 PMDetroit NASCAR ExaminerJosh Lobdell

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After winning the Federated Auto Parts 200 at Nashville, Tenn. one Kyle Busch went all Pete Townsend on the Gibson Les Paul guitar Trophy painted by legendary motor sports artist Sam Bass. For those of you who didn’t get a chance to see it here is the video:

Now Nashville has been giving out these guitars as trophies for a long time and they really are one of those sacred things race car drivers strive for, kind of like winning the Grandfathers clock for winning at Martinsville. I find it very curious that after Kyle Busch won his first race at Nashville that he decided to smash the trophy right there in Victory Lane.

While I find this action troubling, in the end it is Kyle’s trophy to smash and he apparently has plans to cut the thing up and distribute the pieces to his crew. Since Kyle has had a lot of trouble winning this race I can understand that and if that is truly the plan I would give Kyle a pass on smashing the thing right there in Victory Lane.

However I found Kyle’s post race interview a little more troubling and a lot harder to understand. Kyle began talking about how Brad Keslowski and DEI ran so well at Nashville. Then he seemed to remember that Brad’s car is a Hendrick/JR Motor sports entry and that the only link to how the DEI cars ran their in the past crew chief Tony Eury Sr. Not even the drivers were the same when DEI ran well at Nashville it was Martin Truex Jr. driving the eight car with crew chief Kevin Manion.

It really seemed that Kyle was trying to take another shot at Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Hendrick motor sports but it just never came out right, and he ended up looking really confused and really petty. Kyle needs to stop making these kinds of statements and let his performance speak. The best revenge Kyle is going to have on Junior and Hendrick is to run well and keep his mouth shut on the subject.

As for the guitar smashing well here I am writing about Kyle Busch yet again, so maybe this kid is some kind of crazy brilliant, or maybe he just acts before thinking things out clearly. I am sure there are plenty of old school NASCAR fans out there that did not appreciate, or understand the act of going rock star of a prized piece of racing hardware.